Red Kross's Oh Canada, finally on vinyl. Originally self-released in 2016 on CD, Redd Kross now present this live album recorded in Canada in 1997 during their "Show World" American tour on vinyl. Redd Kross expose themselves here at their peak of glammest rocking attitude. Melodies, electricity, choruses... Redd Kross at their best! Absolutely amazing quality and impacting recording mastered by Jeff McDonald himself. This is a mandatory release for all Redd Kross fans around the world. Edition of 600.

The Fuzztones' Dark Zone, finally on vinyl! And expanded! New York City legends The Fuzztones released this collection of their darkest sounds only on CD in 2009 and it had come the time to put it out on vinyl. Full of rare songs focusing on their shadiest material. Dark psychedelic and fuzzed-up songs. In Fuzz we trust! Cover design by Rudi Protrudi. Gatefold sleeve; Edition of 600.

Black Rainbows are back two years from their last album, Stellar Prophecy (HPS 037CD/LP/LTD-LP, 2016) with a magnificent new full-length comprised of nine tracks for about 45 minutes of music. Pandaemonium has this mix of new wave of stoner-occult riffing a la Black Sabbath, but in a heavier way. Some of the songs remind of Fu Manchu but sound heavier than ever, and then you have one long doom-sludge-stoner suite ("Grindstone"), and a couple of lysergic, dreamy, heavy psych songs that will blow your mind. The album sounds killer and was recorded at Forward Studios, one of Italy's finest recording spaces. Produced by Gabriele Fiori and engineered by Fabio Sforza, with a special focus on the drums, handled for the first time in Black Rainbows by Filippo Ragazzoni. Bass riffing is solid and has a mellow sound, and the wall of fuzz from Fiori's guitars will drive you nuts. Artwork will be, for the third time for the band, from the visionary SoloMacello. This is the sixth studio album for the band, and by far the best one yet. It's the most solid and complete album they have ever recorded.

What was before The Drones and even before The Gutterville Splendour Six? This! Gareth Liddiard and Rui Pereira seeding the seed of noise and distortion in the period 1994-1998 in this Bong Odyssey project which recorded this never before released, brutal album of what is 100% The Drones' sound. Gatefold sleeve; Edition of 500.

Gareth Liddiard on the record: "Bong Odyssey is a bunch of stuff Rui and myself recorded in the mid-nineties after we left high school. We were total music nerds into stuff like Suicide, Hüsker Dü, Psychic TV, Merzbow, Big Black, lots of free jazz, Stravinsky and all sorts of weird shit. We lived in Perth which meant we didn't have many friends into the same stuff so we just worked at our jobs then came home and smoked weed, took acid and everything else, drank booze and messed around on our tape machines. We had a ton of music gear like synths, Hammond organs, drum machines, lots of weird effects units. None of that shit was cool then so we could afford to own it. We weren't playing many gigs. We'd done the crazy fast and heavy punk thing and we're moving away from that, as you can tell. We basically jammed and recorded songs at night with no intention of doing anything other than blowing our own minds. Our neighbours hated us and we were always being evicted. I have no idea what people will make of this stuff 'cause it is super weird and fucked up. This is before the Gutterville Splendour Six and right at the beginning of The Drones. When we moved to Melbourne in 2000 to do The Drones thing we sold all of our shit and wound up with guitars only. So naturally we became a guitar band. But between 1993 and 1997 or 1998 we did everything in almost complete isolation without anyone else's input on all sorts of instruments. Western Australia was so out of touch with the rest of the world and we were so out of step with Western Australia that we just disappeared up our own arses. Bong Odyssey is crazy music for crazy music's sake. Pure and simple."

Who said this would never happen... Nevermind, here it is! The Scientists' new recordings! Kim Salmon is back with his Scientists -- Boris Sujdovic, Tony Thewlis, and Leanne Cowie (the mid-80s line-up) -- and delivers their first recording in 30 years. For this occasion Scientists have recorded "Mini Mini Mini", a cover originally by Jacques Dutronc, and "Perpetual Motion", a track written by The Scientists in the '80s, previously unrecorded. And what does it sound like? Simple and easy: The Scientists. Remember "Swampland"? Well, that's the sound here. That's it!

LP version. Fluorescent orange splatter vinyl. Black Rainbows are back two years from their last album, Stellar Prophecy (HPS 037CD/LP/LTD-LP, 2016) with a magnificent new full-length comprised of nine tracks for about 45 minutes of music. Pandaemonium has this mix of new wave of stoner-occult riffing a la Black Sabbath, but in a heavier way. Some of the songs remind of Fu Manchu but sound heavier than ever, and then you have one long doom-sludge-stoner suite ("Grindstone"), and a couple of lysergic, dreamy, heavy psych songs that will blow your mind. The album sounds killer and was recorded at Forward Studios, one of Italy's finest recording spaces. Produced by Gabriele Fiori and engineered by Fabio Sforza, with a special focus on the drums, handled for the first time in Black Rainbows by Filippo Ragazzoni. Bass riffing is solid and has a mellow sound, and the wall of fuzz from Fiori's guitars will drive you nuts. Artwork will be, for the third time for the band, from the visionary SoloMacello. This is the sixth studio album for the band, and by far the best one yet. It's the most solid and complete album they have ever recorded.

LP version. Limited edition silver vinyl. Black Rainbows are back two years from their last album, Stellar Prophecy (HPS 037CD/LP/LTD-LP, 2016) with a magnificent new full-length comprised of nine tracks for about 45 minutes of music. Pandaemonium has this mix of new wave of stoner-occult riffing a la Black Sabbath, but in a heavier way. Some of the songs remind of Fu Manchu but sound heavier than ever, and then you have one long doom-sludge-stoner suite ("Grindstone"), and a couple of lysergic, dreamy, heavy psych songs that will blow your mind. The album sounds killer and was recorded at Forward Studios, one of Italy's finest recording spaces. Produced by Gabriele Fiori and engineered by Fabio Sforza, with a special focus on the drums, handled for the first time in Black Rainbows by Filippo Ragazzoni. Bass riffing is solid and has a mellow sound, and the wall of fuzz from Fiori's guitars will drive you nuts. Artwork will be, for the third time for the band, from the visionary SoloMacello. This is the sixth studio album for the band, and by far the best one yet. It's the most solid and complete album they have ever recorded.

"Sub-underground super-groups are not common. This is less a function of the concept's oxymoronic nature than of the fiercely independent stance of musicians toiling in this area. By definition, they are doing what they do simply because they love it. It can be quite difficult to distract them from their main focus long enough to get them to do anything else. Weeping Bong Band is a lovely exception that proves this rule. Three members -- Clark Griffin, Wednesday Knudsen and PG Six -- are in the current line-up of Pigeons. One, Anthony Pasquarosa, has his own host of solo projects (Crystaline Roses, Gluebag, Burnt Envelope, etc.). And a final 'ghost member', Beverly Ketch, is half of the duo Viewer. Together, however, theirs is a rural psych engine that weeps as gently as a spring rain. This is high-provenance instrumental hippie spew from the apex of the Pioneer Valley. There's plenty of burbling psych guitar, laced with overtones that will make you conjure up visions of dark stoned nights. It is definitely music made in the day when marijuana had passed its medical-use-only status in the Commonwealth. Which is not to infer this music is unimbued with its own mystical curing properties, especially when played at mind-bending volume. Allow yourself to be bathed in the tears of the bong. Their sweet flow will wash away all traces of your sins." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 500.

"Second album by Western Mass's most exciting live band is now in hand, and it's a swirling web of dooziness. Recorded by Ted Lee at Fayre Lawn, the team of Mia Friedman and Andy Allen have created a masterpiece of strange familiarities. Using a large array of instruments -- banjo, gourd banjo, fiddle, guitar, tenor sax, clarinet, flute, drum machine, etc. -- the duo easily transcends any real or imaginary boundaries of what's possible to do with just four hands. The results are as amazing as they are hard to categorize. Listening to the album for the umpteenth time, brings to mind a wide variety of things: an album I have of a high school production of Lerner & Lowe's Brigadoon (1954); Virgil Thomson's 1954 recording of Four Saints in Three Acts, his collaboration with Gertrude Stein; Kronos Quartet's cover of Harry Partch's 'Barstow' from Howl U.S.A. (1996); Big Blood's recent work with Elliot Schwartz (2016); etcetera. There is an air of mid-20th century avant-garde romanticism hanging like a veil over this project. It probably has something to do with the concept of creating a bridge between vernacular culture and experimental performance (even if that performance is unconsciously wrought), but I'm too damn tuckered to get to the bottom of it right now. Suffice to say, All The Roots is a mighty devil of a record. It fulfills the promise of Hollow Deck's live show. And that is saying a pant-load and a half." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.

"First vinyl evidence of the dizzying, ongoing collaboration between France's Delphine Dora and West Yorkshire's Sophie Cooper. Delphine's piano, organ, vocals and extended improvisation techniques have been documented in various places, and always serve up oceanic slabs of pure aural mystery. Comparisons have been made to Charlemagne Palestine, Marian Zazeela and other experimentalists, although Ms. Dora has long maintained her compositions are structurally rooted in folk music. Suffice to say the results are usually otherworldly and stunning. Cooper's guitar, electronics, vocals and trombone have caused similar reactions (I am especially fond of her recent Globokar-like 'bone-investigations). And the pair's collusions (of which there have been several) are always eagerly anticipated. The main themes of the two sides of the LP are 'Invisible Gesture' and 'Sublime Gesture.' The 'Invisible' seems to involve more entwined vocals and a certain space-oid twinkle to the keys. There are also occasional flare-ups that recall Third Ear Band's music for Macbeth or some unknown collaboration between Comus and Paul Rutherford. The 'Sublime' adds heavier drone action to the process, as well as insertion of noise and classical 'events' to interact with the ghost vocals. It is a truly delirious spin." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.

"Debut vinyl by the guitarist of Donkey No No presents two different sides of this mysterious maestro. 'Zoltar Hid All the Locks' is a full on studio quintet session where Jeremy Latch (formerly of the Grudges) played clarinet, Adam Langellotti (ex-Grudges, Sore Eros, etc.) played percussion and ran the board, Matt Robidoux (ex-Speedy Ortiz, Curse Purse, etc.) played guitar and drum box, and Jen Gelineau (Donkey No No, Egg Eggs, etc.) handled the fiddle. The sound on this ranges from Donkey No No's woodsy smoke house charm to segments that really channel early, just post-BarrettFloyd without doing any apery. The 'Minnows' side is all Omeed, doing solos tunesterism then taking on the brute fascism of Dumbledonny Trump the way only an American with a Middle Eastern background can. The side opens with Omeed working in an ur-American tradition (somewhere between Buck Owens' 'Act Naturally' and Paul Newman's version of 'Plastic Jesus' from Cool Hand Luke). From there, reality starts to get sliced, like shifting shards from the brain of Philip K Dick. Songs, constructions, faux-Sinatra homages and flat-out collages bend through each other in unexpected ways, culminating in sequential tape assemblages that says FUCK YOU TRUMP as loudly as anything I've yet heard. Jump on the Omeed train. Your children will be proud you did." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.

LP version. Formed in 2016, High Reeper is made up of Zach Thomas, Napz Mosley, Andrew Price, Pat Daly, and Shane Trimble. Originally started as just a studio band, it rapidly became apparent that these songs were meant to be heard live and loud. The band made their debut in the Philly/DE stoner rock scene in early 2017 with success which was followed up by the recording of their self-titled debut in May of the same year. With a sound deeply rooted in modern stoner rock while still giving a nod to the earliest Sabbath records, High Reeper's first offering is driven by pounding rhythms, thick guitars, and soaring, screeching vocals. High Reeper's self-titled debut is an unapologetic punch to the face for fans of early '70s proto-metal. The sound and smell of leather, weed, boozing, gambling, and death permeate the record from start to finish. Nine tracks that run from up-tempo straight ahead rock, to slowed-down, heavy, early doom. With a rhythm section throwing down grooves that are deeper than the darkest abyss and guitars big enough to put a hole in your chest, the record's finale hits just as hard as its opening track. Vocals soar above the guitars with laser-like precision, and also deliver a direct hit to your soul. Produced, engineered, and mixed by bass player Shane Trimble at TTR studios in Philadelphia and at his home studio Delwood sound in Delaware. The production is laced with old school elements while still maintaining the focus of a modern release. Recorded in the fall of 2017, High Reeper is meant to be played loud and to be played often.

Skenet stands for the renewal of the genre folk rock and takes it to places it's never been! This is the long-awaited follow-up to their much-acclaimed debut album of stellar new electric instrumental folk rock, Allting rullar (SUBL 105CD/104LP, 2015). On their new album Morsning, Skenet establish their sound and reputation as one of Sweden's premier folk rock band and offers a unique mix of dirty riffs and Swedish fiddler traditions -- on the border between tradition and innovation. A folk psychedelic Led Zeppelin meets the legacy of Swedish fiddle culture -- in the gray zone between a pat on the cheek and a knock-out. With the help of the celebrated producer Mikael Herrström (Thåström, Popsicle, Weeping Willows, Ane Brun, etc.) behind the mixer desk, Morsning takes you closer to the raw, energetic sound that became Skenet's signum. Most of the songs on Morsning are written by the siblings Staffan and Lena Jonsson, who are both legitimate "Riks-spelmän" (National Swedish Fiddlers). Staffan and Lena have also performed as special guest musicians with many musical constellations including Dungen, for example. Since the release of the previous album, Skenet has been touring all over Scandinavia and Europe Sweden, including performances at some of the largest folk music festivals in Europe. They will tour even more around this new release. If you dig progressive psych and folk rock, this is definitely for you. Edition of 500.

A few words from Skenet: "Every mile in the tour bus has given us a chance to write and play much more together. The Morsning album is the result of what we want to say more than anything else right now! We are hugely proud!"

LP version. Robbie Basho (1940-86), who died young after a stroke, never got his due in the culture at large, but steel-string guitar enthusiasts have known for decades that he was one of the greats of "American Primitivism". Technically adept and compositionally imaginative, fusing the music of many cultures into a mesmerizing solo style, he has been an inspiration for many; his music has generated a surge of interest in recent years. This 1982 concert was part of a four-show Italian tour. It took place at the 18th-century Palazzo Gaddi that housed the local music high school and was mostly used for classical concerts, in an intimate space co-organizer Mario Calvitti (whose memories of the events surrounding this concert make up the bulk of the liner notes) says Basho called it "one lovely little room where I could play all night." Only previously released incompletely as a download, this show can now be heard in its full glory. This release is in cooperation with the Official Robbie Basho Archives. No. 2 in the RB-Archives-Live series. Produced by Buck Curran; Co-released with Obsolete Recordings.

"American musician Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is without doubt one of the greatest pioneers of world guitar music. To this day, his songs and compositions for the acoustic guitar remain wholly unique, contemporary, and otherworldy. Though largely unknown in Italy when he toured there in 1982 (in the company of Italian acoustic guitarist Maurizio Angeletti), the small to medium size audiences who attended his performances were overwhelmingly sympathetic to his musical vision and deeply entranced in the glow of his musical presence. From what is documented on this recording from Forlì, we are given witness to Basho's idiosyncratic spirit and musical artistry. Wielding only a six and twelve-string guitar and his powerful voice, we hear rapturous fingerpicking and singing. As the concert evolves, Basho's spirit rises high above terra firma as he transforms into a wild mythical winged stallion, riding waves of colour and sound ... charging across plains of cosmic light towards the outer regions of space and time." --Buck Curran, September 11, 2017, Bergamo, Italy

Reissue. Originally released in 1967. Pau Riba : "I must have been seventeen, eighteen. I was at the peak of adolescence, and I had found out that, besides pop and rock, there was folk music and that, intimately linked to folk, there was this thing called protest song. I had also found out that, even without trying, my manner of expression was prone to surrealism. I don't think -- or remember -- the process being as conscious and thoughtful as what I'm describing now, but I guess that, in the back of my mind, my ideas must have taken shape in a similar manner."

What potential does popular music, with its notorious obsession with the past, hold for the imagination of future communities? And how can, in a most general sense, pop help us think about this? In other words: What are the domains and possibilities of "political" art today? These questions, as questions about the time and temporality of the political, are at the core of PTTRNS' new album Material Und Geschichte, produced with Andreas Spechtl (of Ja, Panik, among others) in a long Berlin summer in 2017. Over the course of 47 minutes, the album submits, lyrically and conceptually, the outline of a pervasive futurity. On the record's eight tracks, this futurity figures in three ways: First, as the time of the performance -- a time of the present that becomes indistinguishable from the future. This time of the event is marked in the physicality that has featured prominently on the band's last efforts and has always made for their famously infectious live appearances: the jam-like, funky quality of their sound. Secondly, time is introduced as a time of repetition: an excessive time that itself comes from the future and, in its exceeding the material present, folds it back to its origin. This repetition, presented with equal attention to form and expressivity, invokes a tradition that has, somewhat unfortunately, been identified as "krautrock". Thirdly, time features on Material Und Geschichte as a technological counter-time, or "Contretemps", as registered in a song title: This is the time of the producers' intervention, the dub, which opens up in the record's most free moments and, calling attention to the materiality of the record itself, marks the temporal suspension of the listener that always also is a possibility for action. Lyrically, the collective that is PTTRNS speaks in a communal voice. Connecting to their previous work, which focused on the possibilities of individual instances of sense-making, Material Und Geschichte frames these instances as ways of relating, as the presents of a future solidarity. This is mirrored in the production values of the record, which, as is usual for the band, is a communal effort. The record boasts a cast of notable collaborators in Rabea Erradi (Die Heiterkeit, Sleep) on saxophone, Sonja Deffner (Jason & Theodor, Die Heiterkeit) on clarinet and vocals, and Andreas Spechtl on vocals and guitar; the artwork is designed by Our Polite Society. Includes download code.

Following the acclaimed first album of Al Sunny released in 2017 (FVR 134LP), Favorite Recordings present this single remix package of "Open Up Your Eyes". One of the highlights of Al's first album was the track "Open Up Your Eyes", which disclosed the premise of Al Sunny music style, infused with blue-eyed-soul, pop, and folk. On the A side, Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart delivers again a hot soulful/disco version of the song with his famous touch. As for the B side, Favorite asked the Canadian producer Jex Opolis, with a disco style slightly more oriented in electronic and house vibes.

"Marc Bolan was only a member of John's Children for a few short months, but the experience would have an indelible impact on the future trajectory of his music. . . . The group's first single for Track would be a Bolan composition, 'Desdemona'. . . . The next single, 'Midsummer Night's Scene', was scheduled for release in July but was cancelled at the last minute. . . . Bolan departed [...] but John's Children recorded one more of his songs, 'Mustang Ford', which they repurposed as 'Go-Go Girl' . . ." --Mike Stax, Ugly Things

LP version. Limited edition orange vinyl. Formed in 2016, High Reeper is made up of Zach Thomas, Napz Mosley, Andrew Price, Pat Daly, and Shane Trimble. Originally started as just a studio band, it rapidly became apparent that these songs were meant to be heard live and loud. The band made their debut in the Philly/DE stoner rock scene in early 2017 with success which was followed up by the recording of their self-titled debut in May of the same year. With a sound deeply rooted in modern stoner rock while still giving a nod to the earliest Sabbath records, High Reeper's first offering is driven by pounding rhythms, thick guitars, and soaring, screeching vocals. High Reeper's self-titled debut is an unapologetic punch to the face for fans of early '70s proto-metal. The sound and smell of leather, weed, boozing, gambling, and death permeate the record from start to finish. Nine tracks that run from up-tempo straight ahead rock, to slowed-down, heavy, early doom. With a rhythm section throwing down grooves that are deeper than the darkest abyss and guitars big enough to put a hole in your chest, the record's finale hits just as hard as its opening track. Vocals soar above the guitars with laser-like precision, and also deliver a direct hit to your soul. Produced, engineered, and mixed by bass player Shane Trimble at TTR studios in Philadelphia and at his home studio Delwood sound in Delaware. The production is laced with old school elements while still maintaining the focus of a modern release. Recorded in the fall of 2017, High Reeper is meant to be played loud and to be played often.

LP version. Includes CD. "I dream of cities -- endless cities where I will die alone..."

Welcome to the soundtrack for the next Ice Age, home to the last survivors of the global climate catastrophe. The night is pierced by a single voice, ringing as clear as crystal between Kiruna and Trelleborg. It belongs to the Swedish singer-songwriter Kristoffer Bolander, whose second solo album is being released by the Hamburg-based label Tapete. What Never Was Will Always Be offers compelling evidence of his accession to the European elite of alternative songwriters. Moving beyond the typical spectrum of alternative folk as heard on Bolander's 2015 debut I Forgive Nothing (TR 325CD/LP), the sophomore album represents a significant evolution in sound. The wonderfully delicate, high-pitched voice of the Swedish singer is framed beautifully by his excellent band, at times quietly focused, at others ramping up distorted guitars and visceral drums. But what really makes the atmosphere of What Never Was Will Always Be unique is the introduction of electronic elements. From gentle synth pads, reminiscent of Brian Eno soundscapes, to dry, pulsating electro drums, with flashes of arpeggios. The songs range from the epic über-hit "Cities" to danceable synth pop numbers like "Animals" and classic folk tunes such as "True Romance" which features Kristoffer Bolander's voice accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. The album is a panoply of small worlds, every song occupying its own sonic dimension, produced to perfection. Add in Bolander's unique lyrical qualities and an extraordinary mood develops, his words falling like mantras from the future, with tales of lost cities and life-changing romances. The new components gently shift the music away from the tried and trusted folk album biotope into a forward-looking electro folk pop sphere. Kristoffer Bolander took care of all the arrangements by himself and Daniel Johansson, renowned for his work with the likes of Grammy winner Tommy Black, was on production duties. Together, the pair created a distinctive sound for each individual song. Bolander and Johansson's meticulous attention to detail shines through the array of instrumentation so masterfully deployed on the record, perfectly complemented by Bolander's expressive voice. What Never Was Will Always Be is a fresh, contemporary folk pop album, tempting the listener to dance, to dream, to cry. RIYL: Cigarettes After Sex, Brandon Flowers.

Formed in 2016, High Reeper is made up of Zach Thomas, Napz Mosley, Andrew Price, Pat Daly, and Shane Trimble. Originally started as just a studio band, it rapidly became apparent that these songs were meant to be heard live and loud. The band made their debut in the Philly/DE stoner rock scene in early 2017 with success which was followed up by the recording of their self-titled debut in May of the same year. With a sound deeply rooted in modern stoner rock while still giving a nod to the earliest Sabbath records, High Reeper's first offering is driven by pounding rhythms, thick guitars, and soaring, screeching vocals. High Reeper's self-titled debut is an unapologetic punch to the face for fans of early '70s proto-metal. The sound and smell of leather, weed, boozing, gambling, and death permeate the record from start to finish. Nine tracks that run from up-tempo straight ahead rock, to slowed-down, heavy, early doom. With a rhythm section throwing down grooves that are deeper than the darkest abyss and guitars big enough to put a hole in your chest, the record's finale hits just as hard as its opening track. Vocals soar above the guitars with laser-like precision, and also deliver a direct hit to your soul. Produced, engineered, and mixed by bass player Shane Trimble at TTR studios in Philadelphia and at his home studio Delwood sound in Delaware. The production is laced with old school elements while still maintaining the focus of a modern release. Recorded in the fall of 2017, High Reeper is meant to be played loud and to be played often.

Welcome to the soundtrack for the next Ice Age, home to the last survivors of the global climate catastrophe. The night is pierced by a single voice, ringing as clear as crystal between Kiruna and Trelleborg. It belongs to the Swedish singer-songwriter Kristoffer Bolander, whose second solo album is being released by the Hamburg-based label Tapete. What Never Was Will Always Be offers compelling evidence of his accession to the European elite of alternative songwriters. Moving beyond the typical spectrum of alternative folk as heard on Bolander's 2015 debut I Forgive Nothing (TR 325CD/LP), the sophomore album represents a significant evolution in sound. The wonderfully delicate, high-pitched voice of the Swedish singer is framed beautifully by his excellent band, at times quietly focused, at others ramping up distorted guitars and visceral drums. But what really makes the atmosphere of What Never Was Will Always Be unique is the introduction of electronic elements. From gentle synth pads, reminiscent of Brian Eno soundscapes, to dry, pulsating electro drums, with flashes of arpeggios. The songs range from the epic über-hit "Cities" to danceable synth pop numbers like "Animals" and classic folk tunes such as "True Romance" which features Kristoffer Bolander's voice accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. The album is a panoply of small worlds, every song occupying its own sonic dimension, produced to perfection. Add in Bolander's unique lyrical qualities and an extraordinary mood develops, his words falling like mantras from the future, with tales of lost cities and life-changing romances. The new components gently shift the music away from the tried and trusted folk album biotope into a forward-looking electro folk pop sphere. Kristoffer Bolander took care of all the arrangements by himself and Daniel Johansson, renowned for his work with the likes of Grammy winner Tommy Black, was on production duties. Together, the pair created a distinctive sound for each individual song. Bolander and Johansson's meticulous attention to detail shines through the array of instrumentation so masterfully deployed on the record, perfectly complemented by Bolander's expressive voice. What Never Was Will Always Be is a fresh, contemporary folk pop album, tempting the listener to dance, to dream, to cry. RIYL: Cigarettes After Sex, Brandon Flowers.

"In the second half of 1966, The In Crowd -- singer Keith West, guitarist Steve Howe, bass player John 'Junior' Wood and drummer John 'Twink' Alder -- were undergoing a radical musical transformation, replacing their soul and R&B covers with more innovative original material. . . . The two songs The In Crowd recorded for Blow Up [by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni] were shelved and remained unissued until the late 1990s. They encapsulate a thrilling moment of metamorphosis as a uniquely gifted group emerged from its mod chrysalis and unfurled its psychedelic wings for the first time." --Mike Stax, Ugly Things

"Finally, in 2018, the full and correct version of Currituck Co.'s fourth album is made public. The operating handle of guitarist Kevin Barker, one of the best players to emerge from the Mid-Atlantic völk underground of the early oughts, Currituck Co. cut five albums between 2000 and 2005, all of which are gorgeous. The original CD version of Sleepwalks, however, released by Track & Field in 2004, was shorn of couple of tracks and featured re-recorded vocals Kevin always thought were a bit naff. This came up in conversation with Kevin a while back, and we offered to right a grievous wrong. The result is this beauty, which has a few extra instruments (like cello by Fern Knight), but is mostly just Kevin on acoustic, electric and vocals. There's always been a Jansch-ian vibe to Kevin's work, which is made explicit here by a great cover of Bert's 'Silly Woman.' More often it's Kevin's guitar picking that sounds haunted by Jansch, with cleanly complex melodies and slippery string shifts. But the way he blends shards of electric amp squeal into the background is uniquely his own. There might be some parallels to certain moments in Ben Chasny's work, but Kevin's genteel vocals have a lost '72 Americana thing going on that is thoroughly great. One friend of mine complains his voice is 'too sweet,' but this ignores the dark leavening of the instrumental inventions. Kevin may remain best known for his work as a sideman with Vetiver, Antony & the Johnsons, Joanna Newsom and so on, but we will always place our bets with Currituck Co. The hot smoke of this album should show you why." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.